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Former Boston Celtic Rodney Rogers Paralyzed

Former NBA and college basketball star Rodney Rogers is paralyzed as the result of an all-terrain vehicle accident, his college coach told the News & Observer of Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

Rogers, 37, who had a 12-year NBA career and won the league’s Sixth Man Award in 1999-2000, was riding in the woods in rural Vance County, N.C., last week when he fell off the vehicle, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the newspaper reported. He was recently transferred from Duke Hospital to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which specializes in rehabilitation for people with catastrophic injuries.

A Durham native who starred in high school football and basketball, Rogers had returned to his hometown and was working for the city public works department as a heavy machinery operator. He was promoted to a supervisory position six months ago, according to the report.

He was also volunteering as a girls’ basketball coach at a Durham middle school and had set up a computer lab at a city public housing complex, according to the report.